US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the weekend deported a woman who was just shy of being nine months pregnant from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, US Congressman Joaquin Castro confirmed Monday.The woman, Juana, whose last name was withheld due to privacy concerns, was held at Dilley for three months with her two children, aged 2 and 8. She was reportedly fearful of giving birth in the detention centre, where there were reports of unsanitary conditions and inadequate medical care.
Castro said in a social media post that Juana was so close to her due date that medical experts deemed her medically unsafe to fly, but authorities deported her anyway.“When ICE first attempted to deport her, doctors and airlines REFUSED to clear her for travel because she was too close to her due date,” said the Democratic congressman, whose district includes San Antonio. “But ICE shopped around for a doctor and airline that would be complicit in this cruelty.”Univision reporter Lidia Terrazas confirmed Juana’s fear of giving birth inside the Dilley camp in her reporting on the incident.“She’s worried that she’s going to deliver her baby surrounded by guards and ICE agents,” Terrazas said in Friday Instagram post.On a Friday afternoon press call, Castro told reporters that Dilley officials “were hiding the pregnant women” from him during his visit to the facility earlier that day. He said several of the pregnant detainees were taken to a medical facility in Laredo for the day, SAan Antonio Current reported.Castro said he did not think it was coincidence that the centre’s off-site medical appointments coincided with his visit. He said he specifically wanted to speak to Juana, who was due to give birth at any moment.After activists and influencers raised concerns over the weekend about Juana’s unknown whereabouts, Terrazas confirmed that she was deported.The SA Current said it had served as the free, independent voice of San Antonio since 1986 and appealed for readers to become supporters for as little as $5 a month to help it continue offering coverage of local news, food, nightlife, events and culture with no paywalls.Terrazas followed Juana to her home country of Guatemala. Terrazas’ Instagram stories showed the pregnant woman lounging in a hammock, away from the stresses of the cramped trailer prison.Castro added in the Monday post that the experience of being pregnant and incarcerated proved so stressful for Juana that her hair was falling out.“I am gravely concerned that ICE is failing to meet the most basic medical needs of expecting mothers like Juana while imprisoned,” Castro added. “Treating pregnant women and their unborn children with such cruelty is unconscionable.”
